Euro losing support?

[MKSheppard]

I wasn't aware the Germans tried to invade Europe in WW1?

What do you call the Scheliffien Plan and their vast penetrations of
Russia (back then it was poland), and of course making Belgium their
bitch.

[TheDarkling]

What do you call the Scheliffien Plan and their vast penetrations of
Russia (back then it was poland), and of course making Belgium their
bitch.

Why, responding to Russian and French aggression of course.

[MKSheppard]

Why, responding to Russian and French aggression of course.

I made a freudian slip:

"their vast penetrations of Russia (back then it was poland)"



"Vast penetrations of Poland (back then it was russia)"

[TheDarkling]

Why, responding to Russian and French aggression of course.

I made a freudian slip:

"their vast penetrations of Russia (back then it was poland)"



"Vast penetrations of Poland (back then it was russia)"

I just assumed you had seen Putin's policy document for next year.

[Vympel]

Ah Poland. The speed bump of Europe. Perfect tank country.

[His Divine Shadow]

Well, weren't everyone gearing for war with everyone else anyhow?

And I am not clear on this, why did they let france go after they'd crushed it in the war of 1870? Why didn't they occupy it and make it a permanent part of the German Empire?

[TheDarkling]

Well, weren't everyone gearing for war with everyone else anyhow?

And I am not clear on this, why did they let france go after they'd crushed it in the war of 1870? Why didn't they occupy it and make it a permanent part of the German Empire?

Why would someone want French people in their empire.

Seriously, why?

Bismarck was after creating a unified and ethnically uniform Germany the last thing he needed was several million rebellious Frenchmen messing things up for him, not to mention that the other major powers wouldn't have stood for such a radical shift in the balance of power.

In the end Bismarck didn't want the parts of France he ended up with because he knew it would lead to trouble, which of course it did.

[Sea Skimmer]

And I am not clear on this, why did they let france go after they'd crushed it in the war of 1870? Why didn't they occupy it and make it a permanent part of the German Empire?

Because they could never have physically occupied all of France. As it was they nearly had to withdraw from the siege of Paris because of the massive guerrilla attacks on there supply lines. Occupying all of France would quite simply have destroyed the German states economically and certainly killed the Prussian goal of uniting the various states. Losses would have gone through the roof and eventually they would have been forced to withdraw.

The Germans where very hard pressed to simply make a peace, which they wanted, since the French government couldn't be trusted and had no regular army after Sedan with which to enforce a peace that would be rather fucking unpopular to the French nation in arms, to say the least.

And anyway, when the war began the they wanted absolutely nothing from France, just beating it would suffice. It was only after the great cost of the war, and there chance for a total defeat of the nation became apparent that they decided that a march on Paris would be made, and Lorraine, and later Alsace be retained.